On Thursday, a new initiative announced by not one, not two, but all three major U.S. telecom service providers strapped a rocket to AST SpaceMobile's (ASTS +21.47%) equity. The company, which specializes in facilitating such services through satellites, saw its stock rise in excess of 10% as a result.
A trio of giants
Before market open that day, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile announced they were forming a joint venture to expand their coverage into so-called "dead zones." This entity, which is yet to be named, will use the type of satellite technology in which AST SpaceMobile specializes.
Image source: Getty Images.
The satellite telephony company issued a positive reaction to the news, quoting CEO Abel Avellan as saying, "We plan to be a key enabler of this transformation as we continue to grow our global network in low Earth orbit and expand available spectrum to our network."
AST SpaceMobile made sure to mention that its BlueBird satellites are equipped with the largest commercial arrays (banks of antennas) ever deployed. It also emphasized that, through this technology, it has achieved peak data speeds of almost 100 megabits per second on mobile devices on this planet.
NASDAQ: ASTS
Key Data Points
The right business at the right time
The press release heralding the new joint venture was short on details (such as timing), but it can clearly, directly, and very strongly benefit AST SpaceMobile's business. While it's difficult at this point to determine to what degree, this is indisputably a very welcome development. Given that, the company's stock seems very attractive now.
